Entering Saturday’s game against the Yankees, the Brewers were reeling. They had lost 6 of 8 games, including three straight. The Brewers were able to squeak by the Yankees in the final two games with 5-4 and 6-5 victories. The Brewers remain 5.0 games ahead in the NL Central, exactly the same amount they lead last week.

Offensively, the man for the Brew Crew has once again been Carlos Gomez. He is tied for 4th in the NL in WAR with Andrew McCutchen at 1.8, and is hitting .291/.357/.563 with a 154 wRC+. Jonathan Lucroy continues to be one of the best offensive catchers in the NL, as he is hitting .298/.365/.444 with a 125 wRC+ and 1.0 WAR. The big surprise for the Brewers has been Mark Reynolds. His 227 AVG and .303 OBP might not look like much, but he has hit 8 HR with an impressive .505 SLG and 121 wRC+. Jean Segura has been the only real disappointment thus far for the Brewers. After bursting on the scene last year with a slash line of .294/.329/.423 and 107 wRC+, he is hitting just .242/.266/.339 with a 62 wRC+.

Despite the great start overall, the Brewers offense has been in the middle of the pack. The Brewers entered Sunday tied for 15th in the MLB in Runs (147), 17th in AVG (.248), 24th in OBP (.302), and 21st in wRC+ (91). Where the Brewers offense has been good is power. They ranked 6th in the MLB in HR (40), and 10th in SLG (.399).

The Cardinals went 3-3 this week. They started the week by taking two of three in Atlanta, but lost two of three in Pittsburgh over the weekend. The Cardinals have really just been treading water for about a month now, as they are just 10-13 over their last 23 games.

Yadier Molina was off to a great start, hitting .350/.377/.540 with a 156 wRC+ through last week. He cooled off quite a bit, hitting just .091/.130/.091 (2 for 22) with a -41 wRC+ over the last week. The Cardinals did however get a few struggling bats going, as Peralta and Bourjos posted 170 and 210 wRC+ over the last week.

Adam Wainwright has been the man on the mound for the Cardinals, posting a 2.02 ERA, with a 0.93 WHIP, 1.4 WAR, 52 K, and 14 BB. He has also been great at the plate, hitting a remarkable .400/.429/.500 (8 for 20) with a 166 wRC+. Wainwright has been so good that his 0.4 oWAR ranks 4th on his team.

The Cardinals offense entered Sundays as one of the worst in the MLB. They ranked just 25th in Runs (.134), 18th in AVG (.247), 20th in OBP (.313), 24th in SLG (.368), and 20th in wRC+ (93).

Johnny Cueto is the early season NL Cy Young favorite. He leads the MLB with a 1.43 ERA and 0.73 WHIP. The Reds rotation has been very good, posting a 3.10 ERA (5th in the MLB), and 1.12 WHIP (2nd in the MLB). The bullpen however has been the major problem. The Reds pen is 29th in the MLB in both ERA (4.80) and WHIP (1.60). Aroldis Chapman returning should help that out a bit.

The Reds offense has really struggled so far in 2014. They entered Sunday 26th in the MLB in Runs (132), 19th in AVG (.246), 16th in OBP (.317), 15th in SLG (.385), and 19th in wRC+ (94). The main reason for this is that the Reds only have two above average offensive players in the lineup (using either wRC+ or OPS+ over the last two seasons) . Here is what the typical Reds lineup looks like with each players wRC+ between 2013-2014 (remember, 100 is average):

The Pirates have finally started to play some good baseball. They entered Sunday winners of four straight games, before falling to the Cardinals 6-5 on Sunday night baseball. During the Pirates four game winning streak, they only allowed a total of 11 runs.

The Pirates offense is once against lead by last year’s MVP, Andrew McCutchen. He is tied with Carlos Gomez for 4th in the NL in WAR at 1.8, and is hitting .319/.427/.511 with a 165 wRC+. The rest of the Pirates offense hasn’t been all that good, and they rank near the bottom in offense in the MLB (like the rest of the division). The Pirates entered Sunday ranked 21st in the MLB in Runs (144), 20th in AVG (.245), 14th in OBP (.319), 20th in SLG (.374), and 16th in wRC+ (97).

The Cubs were outscored by 10 runs this week, and lost 6 of 7 games. Their lone win was a 12-5 win over the White Sox, but in the Cubs other six games they scored 1, 1, 3, 2, 0, and 2 runs. The Cubs season thus far can be summed up by their ace pitcher Jeff Samardzija, who is win-less this season despite posting a 1.45 ERA (2nd best in the MLB, only behind Johnny Cueto).

The Cubs offense has been one of the absolute worst in the MLB. They entered Sunday ranked 27th in Runs (131), 27th in AVG (.227), 26th in OBP (.296), 28th in SLG (.352), and 29th in wRC+ (77).

The lone bright spot for the Cubs offensively has been Anthony Rizzo. He is hitting with 283/.399/.488, with a 145 wRC+, 1.1 WAR, 7 HR and 18 RBI. He is looking like a nice building block for the Cubs, but they are going to need a lot more talent around him if the want to contend in the near future.

The Cardinals are really proving the stats guys right with their drop off from the astronomical BA w/RISP from last year. Although it has fallen off so bad they are now below what should be expected. Let’s just hope they don’t bounce back too far.

They wont bounce back very much as, unlike some others w ho thought they had really improved themselves, taking Beltran out of the lineup and replacing him with a guy with a history of knee trouble was a real problem. They also took Freese out of that lineup. who though he is brutal defensively and did not hit all that well last year, gave them power. In addition, they used a lot of rookie pitchers who are not doing quite as well this year. The league has caught up to them.

Regarding the Brewers… this is still the same Mark Reynolds that lit up the world in the first half for the Tribe and then got cut in the middle of a playoff chase. I smell the smoke, now we just have to figure out where the mirrors are.

Although, the Brewers are a better collective offense than Cleveland was, so they can withstand his weaknesses a bit more… but still.